tell me about our future
by momtara
Summary: When she thinks about her future, all she sees is him. / Or, a series of drabbles on the future of the earth Guardian and the rebel leader. Cornelia x Caleb. Pure fluff. Post-series.
1. safe

"You need to know how to fight."

Cornelia has spent the last week sleeping in his shirt and missing him so much she can hardly breathe. When she sees Caleb again, maddeningly cocky with his lip curled up, all of that goes out the window. She ducks and weaves and bites her tongue against a string of profanity.

"You're forgetting I have the element of earth at my disposal," she reminds him.

"What if you end up on a world where you powers don't work? Or you face an enemy who destabilizes your magic?" He dives, and suddenly her back is flush with the earth. "What if you break both your arms and can't use your powers anymore?"

"You're catastrophizing." Cornelia splutters, tasting the grass.

"You're overconfident!"

She is so taken aback by her own anger that words fail her. Less than a week ago, she _became_ the earth. How could she possibly— oh. Suddenly she sees the fear in Caleb's eyes and remembers how helpless she felt when she had to leave him at Kandrakar.

Cornelia would have done anything to keep him safe. Anything.

"Fine. I'll play it your way." She grins as she moves, landing on top of him. "You're losing your touch."

Caleb brushes her lips with his. She tastes nothing in his kiss but the sweetness of victory.

* * *

a/n: hello everyone! i'm back on my bullshit writing cxc fic since i randomly received a lovely review on 'something real'. this ones for you, gorgeous anon

as per, my w.i.t.c.h fic is mostly based on the cartoon, but comic enthusiasts are always welcome! this is gonna be a ton of pure, unadulterated fluff as per that i wrote in 1.5 sittings. thank you for reading and i love reviews.

love always,

A xxx


	2. guardian

A part of her wonders how Caleb can sleep with that pendant around his neck. Meridian is peaceful at twilight, the sunset painting the sky in reds and golds and ambers, shades she has never seen back home on Earth. He looks so beautiful, his heartbeat slowing as they lie in the shade of a Zenda tree. Even so, Cornelia is fixated on the same crystal that trapped her best friend, the former Guardians, her boyfriend's mother…

There is so much she would like to ask. Does he ever think about what's going on in there? Can she see them through her glass prison? What would happen if it broke?

Could he ever make peace with Nerissa's downfall?

He rouses with a slow yawn. A thousand questions are poised on the tip of her tongue. There is nothing she could say that could ever make it better. She is powerless.

Caleb smiles, and she sees her reflection in his emerald eyes. Just a girl from the planet Earth with supernatural gifts, chosen to guard the infinite dimensions, falling in love with a boy from Meridian. She begins to consider, not for the first time, that she and Nerissa have more in common than she would like to admit.

It is the first time she hopes she will make a better mother some day.

* * *

a/n: fun fact: zenda trees are not a thing. since theres no info anywhere on meridian plant life, i simply rearranged the letters of elyon's bio dads name to make a tree. sometimes i think i have too much power.


	3. hero

Earth culture _fascinates_ Caleb. It takes him weeks to learn to use the remote, longer to use a cell phone, and he would have ordered a dozen X-Acto knives for the rebels had Yan Lin not put her foot down. Even after all this time, there are plenty of things about Earth he doesn't understand.

"I still don't get it," he tells Cornelia one day on the rare occasion when both of her parents are out.

She shushes him. "We're nearly at the part where Vance Michael finds the Key of Flendaar!"

Caleb smirks. "When does he lead an entire rebellion into the castle of the enemy forces, bravely winning the freedom of his people and the heart of his beloved?"

At this, she has to pause the film. "First of all, you did not win _anyone_ 's heart by shouting commands at your rebels. Secondly, you had tons of help when we defeated Phobos." Though her words are ruthless, her touch is soft as she weaves their fingers together. "And are you still jealous of Vance Michael Justin?"

"I just don't think you need to gush over some fictional hero when you've got the real thing right here."

Cornelia presses her forehead to his, and tries not to grin when his breathing quickens. "What is it going to take for you to be quiet?"

"I've a couple ideas," he murmurs.

One day, when she is dressed all in white, her best friend will ask through happy tears when she knew there was no one else for her in the whole infinite dimensions. For now it is enough to be fifteen and learning what love tastes like on the planet Earth.


	4. perfect

"Buy her clothes!" suggests Elyon.

Irma agrees. "Corny's, like, _obsessed_ with fashion."

"She'd probably return whatever he bought." Will pouts. "Remember I got her that scarf for Christmas?"

Cue argument about whether the scarf was actually as heinous as Cornelia had thought.

"You could get her a voucher for something," Taranee offers. "At least that means she won't return it!"

"Kinda impersonal for her sweet sixteen, don't you think?" says Hay Lin. "You should make her something!"

A well-received suggestion. It only takes them an hour to come up with an idea that isn't terrible.

Hundreds gather in the castle's great hall. She pretends to be surprised when she arrives with the Guardians. He kisses her cheek and tries to ignore the way his stomach churns. Ten minutes later, Cornelia returns in a sapphire gown, and he feels like all the air has been knocked out of him. Caleb spends the night avoiding her, but her searching look eventually finds him. He interlocks their fingers and leads her to the balcony.

The chain is thin and delicate, the pendant itself covered in lines and dots. "It's what the sky looked like the night we met." He turns it over. Stars are mapped on its flat surface, different constellations on each side, imprinted carefully in the silver. "One side is what the sky looked like from Meridian, the other side from Earth."

For once, Cornelia is silent. "Do you like it?"

Suddenly, she is in his arms again. This time she has _definitely_ knocked the wind out of him. Caleb is too stupidly, deliriously, unabashedly happy to care.

"It's perfect."


	5. clarity

It happens so fast, yet agonizingly slow.

They had faced worse foes in the past, and they will face worse foes in the future. Cornelia will always remember her shock of orange hair, her vengeful smile. She is cunning and cruel and as predictable as the slew of adversaries they had defeated in their time defending the metaworld.

But he had to go and be a hero. A quick, dumb, careless, self-sacrificing hero.

Cornelia knows she should feel the attack, but she doesn't. The blow never comes. It is taken by someone else.

So fast, too slow. The shape of him, but no, that couldn't be…

A few feet to her right. The love of her short life. Lifeless.

She uses every ounce of pain and rage left in her to defeat their villain. When she comes to, she is bent over him, the mist of her tears blurring her vision. She sees—can't see—her whole future slip away before her eyes.

And then Caleb groans. His eyes slip open, just a crack. Words tumble from her mouth, incomprehensible, and he grasps her hand and cries with her.

Cornelia is eighteen when she nearly loses the love of her life. She had seen her future disappear, something so tenuous, so unattainable, so desirable that she drops everything to be with him on Meridian.

From behind the tears in her eyes, she has never seen so clearly.


	6. truth

Six weeks of bliss—of sleeping in past midday, of waking up smiling, of wandering around Meridian plains, of stealing kisses from the Queen's advisor and never missing home for a second—gives way to the worst fight they will ever have.

You've met _my_ family, he argues. Are you just going to lie to them forever? Tell them you're volunteering abroad for the summer? Fine, he says. Let's just wait another four years to have this conversation.

Cornelia argues back, of course she does, but something tells her that Caleb is not wrong.

When their throats are dry from shouting, she leans her head against his shoulder. "I guess doing the long distance thing was easier, in a way. All of this stuff was way, way, _way_ into the future."

The future? he asks.

The one where she finishes her degree and stays on Earth until her parents have passed. The one with the big white wedding, the cat with a bell on its collar, and the three children she has already named. The one she cannot imagine without him.

There is only one way to make her future happen.

Caleb pretends this is his first visit to the Hale household. Harold cracks a joke at dinner, Elizabeth laughs, and Cornelia reaches for his hand across the table. It is time they know the truth.

Unfortunately, they are not the only ones who think so.

"I'm the Heart of Earth!" cries Lilian.


	7. future

Tell me about our future, she had said without realising.

Tell me about our future, she said the first time they met.

Tell me about our future, she said as they sat in Hay Lin's basement.

Tell me about our future, she said when she kissed him before the final battle.

Tell me about our future, she said the time she caught him as he slipped on the ice.

Tell me about our future, she said through tears when she wore his shirt all those long nights.

Tell me about our future, she said with a smile when she travelled across dimensions to see him.

Tell me about our future, she said in front of their friends and family, matching bands around their fingers.

"Tell me about our future," Caleb says.

Cornelia takes his hand and places it on the roundest part of her stomach. The baby kicks. She could never be ready for this, yet here she is, in the tiniest fraction of their future together, the sum of perfection, an infinitesimal piece of forever.

There is nowhere else she would rather be.

* * *

a/n: thats all folks! hope you enjoyed that little wander into their future of our faves. thank you so so much for reading, i adore you for doing so! if you havent already read 'something real' by yours truly, id totally recommend it for your fix of canon-compliant cxc drabbles. i would also rec 'she who wears the crown' and 'liability' for some elyon love.

you know what else a girl loves? reviews!

thank you thank you thank you + so much love,

A xxxxxx


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